Conventional network technologies implement products with prioritization models for WAN networks. However, with emerging broadband-like wireless networks, such as Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) Rev A and High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), a new approach to providing faster and more efficient downloading and uploading through such prioritization models is also becoming necessary. Typically, existing asymmetric networks download speed is much higher than the upload speed since more bandwidth is provided for downloads. However, in practice, most networks have download speeds that progressively suffer as the upload latency increases. This may result from the utilization of the upload channel by the download channel.
Characteristically, this results in dramatically slower downloads while an upload is occurring and slower connection establishment for the purpose of initiating those downloads. This may be the result of usage of a first-in-first-out (FIFO) queue in the modem. In certain circumstances, an upload of much larger bandwidth usage must complete before a smaller download may be pushed through the queue. Both the FIFO queue and large receive windows may delay the transmission of the “acknowledgement” packets to the sender of the data.
These acknowledgement packets, called TCP Acknowledgments, which allow for additional packets to be sent by the sender, maintain the downloads. The result is that the download speed converges towards the upload speed, and overall throughput (downloading and uploading) is thereby reduced.